Briere looking to snap out of scoring drought

VOORHEES, N.J. — Danny Briere saw this before. It’s an annual event, when the Flyers invite a locker room full of military service personnel to the Skate Zone for a lunch of Winged P rations, along with meets, greets and autographs with the players.

Most of the team’s stars readily participate, just as Briere has always done. But Friday, he spent more time with his uniformed friends than anyone else. It was almost as if Briere identified with them.

“It’s pretty cool, everything they do,” Briere said of the visiting crew representing all five branches of the service from joint base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

Briere’s affinity for the soldiers on this practice Friday partially stemmed from his girlfriend’s vocation. She’s a physician in training with the U.S. Air Force. He wanted to keep her identity private, but the two met in Philadelphia. Just a couple of months ago, she returned from a tour in Afghanistan.

“She was deployed for six months,” Briere said. “You realize all the sacrifice they’re doing for us over here. It’s pretty amazing, some of the things they have to go through. It’s part of the reason why we are so safe here. You have a lot of respect for what they do to keep our country safe. But I never knew how far they would go to keep us safe; to risk their lives the way they do for us.”

Briere said that respect level increased the more he talked with his girlfriend about her experiences over there.

“It’s sad, but you almost take it for granted a little bit, how we are safe here,” Briere said. “Now, there’s definitely a lot more respect for what they go through, knowing exactly what it is; what they do. We do have a lot of conversations about that. There are all kinds of stories. You never know how affected these people may be. It’s not an easy place to go. But so far so good. She’s comfortable talking about it.”

Briere’s comfort level about his game and the Flyers’ current standings situation isn’t as solid. He hasn’t scored a goal in his past 13 games. It likely has to do with something more than bad luck.

Then again, the semi-superstitious Briere did cut his hair the other day.

“That was part of it,” Briere said. “Trying to change it up a little bit.

“It’s not the first time. It’s happened in the past,” he said of his goalless streak, which usually ends when the playoffs start. “One thing I know is you keep working at it, and it’s going to (work) out. It seems almost every year I’ve been here there’s been a stretch where things have not gone my way and there’s only one way out - keep working hard and keep following through. ... That’s the same attitude I’m going with.”

The problem with that is the Flyers have precious little time to wait. Their locker room standings board Friday had them clearly illustrated in 14th place in the Eastern Conference with only 18 games left to be played.

“It’s a lot more comfortable when you’re in control of your own destiny,” Briere said. “We probably need some help along the way, but it’s worked out before. So I’m not losing hope. At this point it’s too early to look at what other teams are doing. Before we start doing that we have to get a little streak of our own. Get to playing better, rack up some wins, and then if we can get a little closer to the race, we can start looking at what we need.”

Perhaps what Briere needs is a real position change. Coach Peter Laviolette has been shuffling the 35-year-old forward around on lines but Briere continues to play much more wing than he does center, which would seem to be a more natural position for him.

“I’ve said all along that (whereever) they feel I can help the most, that’s where Lavy is going to use me,” Briere said. “I’ve been a center my whole career, but that’s out of my control. If he feels this helps more, then that’s the way we’re going to go.”

Laviolette admitted it’s not ideal to have natural and diminutive centers like Briere and Matt Read on the wing, but then, nothing seems ideal right now as the Flyers limp into Pittsburgh for a game against the rolling Penguins Sunday. Then come the Rangers, Islanders and Bruins.

“I think we need everybody to dig in,” Laviolette said. “We’ve got big games coming up and certainly we need all the guys we count on and lean on for minutes; make sure they’re ready to play.”